Chapter 483. Looking Up and Down (5)

It was something that Chi-Woo and even the Sernitas, who were sharing consciousness with the Abyss King, couldn’t have predicted. They heard a sudden cry, and the connection they had managed to reestablish with great efforts showed signs of cutting off again. The Abyss King was trying to free himself from their control once more, and the Sernitas hurriedly analyzed the situation.

—…!

They exclaimed in shock. The Abyss King had done something he shouldn’t have—something truly unbelievable. At this point, there was really no turning back.

—Warning. Warning. Warning. Warning.

Some suggested that they needed to gather more information, but as a collective, the Sernitas immediately cut off all connections with the Abyss King. Otherwise, they might be hit with great backlash along with the Abyss King. It was then Chi-Woo sensed the abnormalities happening around him.

—What?

Philip also asked worriedly and looked around. The world that had recovered more than half of its luminance was darkening again. Chi-Woo didn’t have a good feeling about this. How should he describe it? Just a moment ago, the Abyss King had been barely maintaining his existence and appeared like he couldn’t cope any longer. Then, it should’ve been normal for all the consciousnesses that made up the Abyss King to escape from his control and run wild. But instead, they seemed to be merging into one.

They weren’t simply sharing abilities or anything else in the same vein, but were combining into one being. It was illogical, and Chi-Woo could only think of one kind of existence that could accomplish such nonsensicality.

‘Is he perhaps…becoming a god?’ There was no way. A god wasn’t such an attainable existence; one couldn’t and shouldn’t become a god simply because they wished to. Otherwise, there would’ve been no need for the Sernitas to wander across the universe as they did. Still, Chi-Woo couldn’t be certain of it because the Abyss King had absorbed Flora, who held the ability ‘The Heavens’ Vessel’. Even if he didn’t become a god, he could become an existence equal to it.

—Chi-Woo!

Philip cried out then, awakening Chi-Woo to his senses. Chi-Woo raised his head and blinked hard. The darkening world was recovering its light again. What in the world was happening? Chi-Woo couldn’t understand anything.

—There!

Philip pointed in one direction and shouted hurriedly. The darkness that had consumed the world at one point didn’t disappear and was getting sucked into the air and gathering. A dark figure absorbed all the darkness and lengthened in shape. It stretched from top to bottom like a stick of toffee and took the form of a giant sickle. Soon afterward, it tilted slightly and swung toward Chi-Woo. Chi-Woo couldn’t take his eyes off the looming sickle of darkness.

It was an attack just like all the previous ones, but it felt more formidable and threatening than anything Chi-Woo had felt before. True to his feelings, the sickle came down while slicing through the world. Breaking from his reverie, Chi-Woo raised his club and kicked off the floor. Simultaneously, the sickle struck the point where Chi-Woo used to be standing. Fortunately, he was able to escape the attack by a hairbreadth, but that wasn’t the case for Philip.

Rather than struck, the sickle only grazed him ever so slightly, but Philip’s eyes turned wide seeing the part the sickle had touched. The sickle continued to move, fluctuating wildly once like it was melting and changing forms into a whip. Like it was going to cut Chi-Woo down, it flung out. Just when Chi-Woo was going to block it with his club, Philip urgently cried out.

—Don’t try to block it. Avoid it!

Thus, Chi-Woo changed directions. He didn’t hear any noise this time, but his surroundings were falling apart. It started with the space that the darkness sickle had sliced through. Like peeling the skin of an apple, the slice revealed the outer space that existed outside of Liber. From the back, the space where the whip had struck wrinkled. A deep gash had been left on the world itself, and where Philip had been grazed had completely disappeared. Rather than leaving any wounds, it just went missing as if it had never been there in the first place. It became nothing—a nonexistence that disappeared from reality. Philip gritted his teeth.

—They have a single-minded determination.

“What…?”

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

—It’s the manifestation of this determination, and the tenacity to carry out this will.

A will was one’s intent to accomplish something, and tenacity was the quality of pouring all of one’s mind and heart into a single task. All the consciousnesses that made up the Abyss King combined their wills to kill Chi-Woo. Tens of thousands of consciousnesses were stacking on top of one another and were single-mindedly shouting, ‘Kill, kill, kill, kill…’ The resulting effect was truly outstanding, as shown by the last two attacks.

The Abyss King’s determination had contorted even the world’s rules.

—You can say that it’s a deadly bloodlust.

Philip quickly continued.

—I don’t know what that guy did, but he can materialize his will and…?

Philip stopped mid-sentence when he saw the Abyss King’s form separate into a hundred parts, which then morphed into sharp thorns that could pierce anything and circled around Chi-Woo. Before Philip could say another word, the Abyss King’s will had turned into thorns with Chi-Woo as the target.

—Damn it!

Philip cursed. His intuition told him that they should avoid ever getting hit by the Abyss King’s attacks, but at this rate, it would be impossible to evade every single thorn. Chi-Woo managed to avoid them somehow, but the thorns altered trajectories as soon as they missed and aimed for Chi-Woo again. The scope of attack was gradually narrowing, and it seemed evident that Chi-Woo would soon be surrounded on all sides by the thorns. Defying the rules of the world was the same as ignoring the abilities that Chi-Woo had gained from his growth on Liber. Thus, he had no other choice now but to draw out that power inside him.

—It can’t be helped! Chi-Woo! First…!

Philip swallowed the rest of his words and stared blankly at Chi-Woo as his eyes glowed, and his entire body radiated with fluctuating light. Chi-Woo was using that power before Philip even told him to, but despite that, he was still getting pushed back. Kakakaka! A thorn finally got close to Chi-Woo. Though it failed to advance further because of the light pouring out of his body, Chi-Woo still groaned in response. This attack wasn’t meant to wound him and make him bleed, but to hit the very core of his existence. Without any cause or extra thoughts, it seemed to purely strive for the result of death.

If there was only one of them, it would’ve been manageable. Yet as Philip had already said, these wills piled up indefinitely and weighed them down. Chi-Woo almost couldn’t believe the situation. His fate and the power inside him had allowed him to wield absolute dominance over all his opponents until now. Of course, he was using a very tiny portion of its full capabilities, but he had never been pushed back by an opponent after he drew it out. Furthermore, the quantity and depth of the power he could wield had increased when he shared Heaven’s Vessel from Flora.

Chi-Woo didn’t know exactly how the Abyss King had managed to push his power to this level, but he understood why Philip had told him to never take a hit from him. The manifestation of the Abyss King’s single-minded determination was truly formidable, so dangerous that it could infiltrate his one and only fate and cause serious alterations.

—How…!

Philip bit on his lip. Meanwhile, the thorns imbued with the Abyss King’s terrifying determination were restlessly shooting at Chi-Woo. From far away, Chi-Woo looked like a hedgehog. Perhaps the only way out was for Chi-Woo to go beyond the level that was safe for him when drawing out his power. If Chi-Woo also went 100% rather than using only a tiny piece of his power, he could change the situation. But that would be like putting the cart before the horse. He would return to the time when he would go berserk, and he didn’t have any more second chances.

In the end, Philip realized that Chi-Woo had no more options left and suggested Chi-Woo to back off. He told Chi-Woo to enter the passageway that his brother was still maintaining and return to the Middle World. It was a strategic retreat. Though they still didn’t know what the Abyss King had done, he must have sacrificed something to gain his current power and would suffer the consequences afterward. Accordingly, there was no reason for Chi-Woo to go out of his way to continue fighting the Abyss King head-on. Since the Abyss King was already going haywire, they would simply have to wait for him to self-destruct and disappear.

Hearing Philip’s suggestion, Chi-Woo drew out all his remaining power and detonated it. Between the exploding thorns, Chi-Woo moved in a flash. Philip’s idea wasn’t wrong as long as Chi-Woo could safely escape this place. Chi-Woo soared into the air and found himself surrounded corner to corner by dark matter. Seemingly intent on grabbing onto him, the Abyss King’s consciousnesses fiercely enveloped him. Then, before he could even respond, they wrapped around Chi-Woo like a net and caught him. Because everything happened in an instant, neither Chi-Woo nor Philip could do anything. Soon, the world that had been in great turmoil and chaos fell silent.

—Fu…

Until a menacing laughter flowed out.

—Fu…Kufufufu….kuhahahaha…!

It was such strange and mad laughter that it was hard to believe that it had come from the Abyss King, but all that didn’t seem to matter now. The Abyss King had finally achieved his goal.

Then his laughter came to an abrupt stop.

—Fuha….

The Abyss King couldn’t contain his astonishment after detecting the enormous potential contained inside his consciousnesses. He now understood why Chi-Woo had laughed at him before. He thought he had become the heavens when he absorbed the girl named Flora, but now he could sense how absurd his belief had been. The endless potential he sensed from Chi-Woo sent jitters across his whole body. If he could, he wanted to roll on the floor while laughing hysterically to express his joy, but he contained himself. He didn’t have much time left since the numerous consciousnesses that made up his existence were dying off exponentially.

But now, he got his hands on something that could cover all that loss and much more. As he had always done, the Abyss King would absorb Chi-Woo. Then, he would be born into a new existence. Even if he couldn’t contain this being and had to spit it back out, it didn’t matter. If he could take even a small part of such an existence, he would be satisfied.

—Ugh!

The Abyss King suddenly groaned. Simultaneously, the darkness that enveloped Chi-Woo fluctuated widely.

—W-What…?

The Abyss King’s voice trembled. Why would his absolute determination, which could even defy the law of causality, shake? The Abyss King tried to maintain control of all the consciousnesses inside him that were wavering again. This wasn’t a power that he could properly control anyways; the Abyss King’s mindset when using it had always been to ‘reap the gain first before thinking about paying the price’. When a person spent all the money they had, they needed to leave the game without any regrets. Yet the Abyss King was someone who couldn’t do that. He took loans to borrow money to continue playing.

When he created the Astral World, it was as if he had taken out a great loan, and he continued to do that repeatedly after the start of his battle with Chi-Woo. It was something the Abyss King could do because he had consumed countless consciousnesses and absorbed them. Then, he eventually hit the jackpot with one of them and discovered a true goldmine named Flora. That was when he began to get greedy. With the new gains he made, he decided to use all his bets to take Chi-Woo. Of course, as expected, that was no easy process.

After being pushed into a corner again, the Abyss King made another huge gamble. He invested all the consciousnesses including Flora to take out loans again. It was such an enormous sum that it managed to overturn the law of causality that he had already surpassed. And because he had gained the ability to manipulate causes and results according to his own will, it seemed like a sure-fire method.

However, there was a price for everything. Unless it was someone who could bear the consequences of it like Future Yoo-Joo, all beings, including the Abyss King, would suffer setbacks for breaking the law of causality. At least that was what should’ve happened, but the Abyss King made the countless consciousnesses inside him bear the consequences for him. It was definitely not right and wasn’t a normal procedure. And in the end, the Abyss King would also be indirectly affected. He had only won himself a short reprieve, and before all his consciousnesses were swept away by the law of causality, he needed to catch Chi-Woo and pay back all his loans. Fortunately, he succeeded in his plan before it was too late. He just needed to absorb Chi-Woo…at least that was what he had thought.

—Ah…!

The Abyss King realized that he had thought wrong from the beginning. No matter how outstanding a gambler was and whatever means he used, a gambler could never beat the casino. Furthermore, there was no way he could defeat the government that authorized the establishment of the casino or the county that provided the room for all that to take place. Neither would he be able to defeat the planet that allowed the land to exist, the galaxy that embraced this planet, or the universe that contained this galaxy. There was no need to even mention how he would play against the heavens.

—N-No…!

The Abyss King clutched the consciousnesses that were going berserk and tried to calm them down, but it was far too late. When he couldn’t beat Chi-Woo even with the Sernitas' support, the result of the fight had already been decided. An indescribable pain took over his mind. It felt like his whole body was getting shredded. And amid the consciousnesses falling into countless pieces, the Abyss King clearly saw a giant pillar of light burst through.

Booooom!